dvdp:
The Milky Way and Storms over Africa
view from ISS, 2011-12-29 (over central Africa to Madagascar)
(Source: eol.jsc.nasa.gov)
What brain freeze can teach us about migraines
Brain freeze is a nearly universal experience that researchers now believe is related to local changes in brain blood flow.
Green Jade Flower.
The Jade Vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) is a native of the tropical forests of the Phillipines. Its flowers are the color of jade, and hang in bunches up to 90 cm long; each clawlike flower is about 7½ cm long. In its native Philippines, the jade vine’s flowers are pollinated by bats.The rare and beautiful green jade flower is distinct for its blue-green petals and navy-purple center.
(Source: ellerg.blogspot.com)
Oxygen Discovery Raises Hopes for Saturn Moon Life
Two years ago, when NASA’s Cassini Solstice spacecraft flew past the moon Dione, it noticed something familiar. Oxygen is present in Saturn’s third-largest moon’s exosphere (its extended, tenuous atmosphere), and according to research published this week, Cassini’s hi-tech “nose” had sniffed it.
Obviously, the first thing that springs to mind when discussing oxygen is that it’s a pretty important component for life on Earth. But Dione, a barren and icy world, possesses few attributes that would make it suitable for life as we know it.
Although it is known to be composed of significant quantities of water ice, there is no indication — unlike sister Saturn moon Enceladus — that there is any sub-surface aquifer of liquid water. Liquid water is key to the evolution of life.
So why is the discovery of oxygen in Dione’s exosphere important? If Dione’s got it, then perhaps its sibling moons also have it, giving us a tantalizing clue as to the possibility of life on the natural satellites around Saturn and Jupiter.
“Some of the other moons have liquid oceans and so it is worth looking more closely at them for signs of life,” Andrew Coates, of University College London and lead scientist of the study, told BBC News.
Images: Top: Dione hangs above Saturn’s magnificent rings. Bottom: Dione emerges from behind its sibling Titan’s hazy atmosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. For more spectacular views from Cassini, visit the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS) website.
(via expose-the-light)
SolarBeat: turning the solar system into a musical instrument, for your listening (and viewing) pleasure.
(h/t Mr. Douglas Q. Smith)
The blue planet’s toxic new colours
1. Tissue slurry — Ontario, Canada This man-made lake in Terrace Bay, Ontario, Canada, is more than 500 metres long. It’s an aeration pond, part of the waste-treatment system at a factory that produces pulp for Kimberly-Clark tissues. “The treated water is returned to its source — often a river,” says Fair. Each yellow cone is an “agitator” that aerates and churns the liquid, assisting its breakdown. According to Worldwatch Institute figures, if recycled paper was used instead, 64 per cent less energy would be needed.and churns the liquid, assisting its breakdown. According to Worldwatch Institute figures, if recycled paper was used instead, 64 per cent less energy would be needed.
2. Fertiliser — Louisiana, US This emerald-tinted lake near Geismar, Louisiana, includes gypsum, uranium and radium. These chemicals result from manufacturing phosphorous fertiliser and are dumped into this impoundment to solidify. The world’s supplies of phosphates are dwindling and most are located in the US, China and Morocco. Unlike oil, however, there is no known renewable alternative for making fertiliser. “You think the resource crisis is in oil?” says Fair. “Think again.”
3. Spilled oil — Gulf of Mexico, US Fair captured this shot over the BP Deepwater Horizon spill at the Macondo well in June 2010, when 750m litres of oil leaked into the Gulf. “The stuff that was coming out of that well was all different colours,” says Fair. “We think of crude oil as being black — it’s all kinds of different colours and consistencies.” The bright red is the crude on the surface, reflecting light. The less viscous oil below the surface is purple-brown.
4. Liquid sulphur — Alberta, Canada At Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, a blood-red vein of liquid sulphur is pumped on to a bed of solidified yellow sulphur. The element is one of the major by-products of tar-sand upgrading and there is now an abundance of stocks globally. With prices low, producer Syncrude isn’t selling — it’s storing it in giant pyramids. Liquid sulphur, at around 200°C (its melting point is 115°C), is pumped into fenced-off compounds and left to harden.
5. Aluminium sludge — Louisiana, US This slurry pit is where the solid and liquid by-products of aluminium manufacture are separated. The process involves refining bauxite ore, which produces alumina. The waste includes bauxite impurities, heavy metals and sodium hydroxide (one of the chemicals used during processing). Fair estimates that the red-brown sludge has a pH of about 13, “meaning if you touch it, it burns the skin off”.
6. Fertiliser slurry — Louisiana, US This wintry-looking scene is a mix of lead, ammonia, mercury and ethanol — by-products of phosphate fertiliser production. “It’s a giant lake of waste,” says Fair, who shot the image 80km west of New Orleans in 2005. Owned by Mosaic Fertilizers, the plant, called Uncle Sam, has violated the US Clean Water Act nine times. The slurry pit is less than 3km from the banks of the Mississippi.
(via expose-the-light)
Some Honey Bees Are Thrill-Seekers
A new study in Science suggests that thrill-seeking is not limited to humans and other vertebrates. Some honey bees, too, are more likely than others to seek adventure. The brains of these novelty-seeking bees exhibit distinct patterns of gene activity in molecular pathways known to be associated with thrill-seeking in humans, researchers report.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Honey-Bees-Have-Distinct-Personalities-030912.aspx
